


The Hole in the Paladins

by avatar_dragon_rider



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Finding Shiro, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I guess????, Keith needs a hug, M/M, Major Character Undeath, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, Post-Season/Series 02, Sad Keith (Voltron), Season/Series 02 Spoilers, Slow Burn, THEY EVENTUALLY FIND SHIRO GUYS, Tags Contain Spoilers, all the angst man, but oh well we got months before that happens, isn't that technically canon keith now?, just because, once season 3 comes out that tag will be irrelevant, she doesn't identify as girl or boy but uses female pronouns
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 17:01:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9501161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avatar_dragon_rider/pseuds/avatar_dragon_rider
Summary: Shiro is gone. The Paladins are broken. But none more than Keith. How is he supposed to lead Voltron when he can't even come to terms with himself?





	1. Aftermath

Losing a Paladin.

Allura had seen it happen before. She’d watched Zarkon kill a member of Team Voltron back when he turned evil, before the others fled in terror and King Alfor chose to hide the lions.

But she’d never seen the reactions of fellow Paladins up close.

Lance had been shell-shocked. He sat in his chair in the bridge, staring at his hands folded in his lap. Shiro had been Lance’s idol, his hero, the man he’d looked up to, to try to become. His fearless leader. Now he was gone without a trace, with no clues as to where he went. Or if he’d even survived.

Hunk was curled in the corner, arms around his legs and his chin on his knees. He stared out the window into open space, watching the stars go by with a faraway look on his face. The Yellow Paladin was unreadable. He’d followed Shiro without question, trusted in his instincts. It was like he had been born to lead Voltron. What were they going to do without him?

Pidge was curled up in her chair, head in her elbow. No one could see it, but everyone knew she was crying. Soft sobs came from within the elbow, and occasionally a tear would drip onto the floor below her chair. Shiro had been the only connection Pidge had to finding her family, and now that he was gone…how was she going to find them now? And even more important, how were they going to form Voltron?

Coran went silent ever since they discovered Shiro’s empty chair. He hadn’t said a word, just sat at the Castleship’s controls, scanning for possible Galra attackers. It was unlikely anyone would attack, since as far as they knew Zarkon was dead, but they all had to be on guard for anything. Or at least, Coran needed to be on guard.

Allura herself was shaken. She couldn’t believe it had happened again. The first time Voltron took on Zarkon, all the Paladins had been separated and she and Coran had been stuck in a time loop in a corrupted wormhole. This time, everyone was alive and together, but Shiro had disappeared. Two Black Paladins in a row, each gone in their own way. Allura could only imagine what the Black Lion must be going through.

And Keith…

The Red Paladin had disappeared into his room when everyone else headed for the bridge. He’d slipped away from everyone unnoticed, and only when Allura looked around the room did she realize he’d been missing.

She understood how Keith felt. He’d been closer to Shiro than anyone else on Team Voltron―except maybe Lance, since the two always seemed to be flirting. At least…that’s how Alteans flirted, anyway. Maybe it was different for humans, but it always seemed like there was more to Keith and Lance’s relationship than the two were letting on. In the past, the Red and Blue Paladins always seemed to form closer bonds with each other than with the rest of the Paladins. Then again, the same usually happened with Yellow and Green, but Pidge and Hunk seemed no different in their interactions than any other pair besides Keith and Lance.

Allura sighed and spoke up. “Paladins.” 

Everyone looked to her, looking a mixture of dejected and hopeful. Pidge had tears still running down her cheeks.

“I know we have suffered a great loss. Shiro…” She tried to keep her voice steady. “Shiro was a great Paladin, and an amazing leader, but we can’t let his sacrifice be in vain. Haggar still lives; there’s no telling what she will do for revenge. We must be prepared for any attack she may launch, on us or on another planet. We will stop her, and Zarkon if he still lives, and we _will_ find Shiro, wherever he is.”

“Allura,” Lance sighed, “you know I’ll follow you to the ends of the universe and beyond―we all will―but we just lost _Shiro._ We don’t have a pilot for the Black Lion. We can’t form Voltron. How are we going to defeat Haggar?”

“We’ll worry about that later,” said Pidge. “We have a more important matter to think about.”

Allura stepped closer to the Green Paladin. “What?”

Pidge looked at everyone in turn. “Keith.”

<><><><>

Allura found Keith right where she thought he’d be, curled up in his room. His Paladin armor was in pieces on the floor, and he was in the corner, jacket pulled over his head. His shoulders shook with quiet sobs.

_Oh, Keith…_

“Keith…” Allura started softly, careful not to startle him. Keith had a tendency to lash out when startled.

Keith flinched anyway, pulling his jacket tighter over his head and curling closer into the corner. “G-Get away from me,” he choked out. “I’m…it’s not safe.”

Allura didn’t know what the quiznak he meant by that last comment, but she decided against questioning him. If Keith wanted space, she’d give him space.

“I only wanted to check on you,” she said gently. “You didn’t come with us to the bridge. We were all worried. Are you…are you alright?”

“No,” Keith replied in a broken, trembling voice. “I’m not.”

Allura slowly took a step closer. Despite how wrongly she treated him, how she’d initially felt about him being Galra and shoved him away out of prejudice, she just wanted to pull him close in a never-ending hug. He seemed to need it.

“Keith.” Allura spoke softly, like she was talking to a scared, injured animal. “Can I sit next to you?”

When Keith didn’t answer, Allura decided to take it as a yes. She came closer, but just before she could sit down she heard a small “Wait,” from underneath Keith’s jacket. She froze instantly, careful not to move a single muscle, watching as Keith readjusted his jacket on his head. His hands seemed normal, but he appeared to be hiding something under the jacket. From what Allura could see of his face (which was mainly a bit of his cheek and the end of his chin) his face also seemed normal. Allura was just deciding to not ask Keith about it when she heard his quiet “Okay,” allowing her to sit by him. She settled down next to him, her back against the wall, a few inches of space between them.

They sat in silence for several ticks, maybe a dobash, before Allura spoke up. “You know, it’s alright to be upset about Shiro’s…disappearance.” She elected not to say “death” out of fear of setting Keith off―or herself for that matter.

Keith remained silent.

Allura sighed. “Pidge is crying too, you know. Curled up in the Green Paladin’s chair, in plain view of everyone.”

“I shouldn’t be showing weakness,” Keith mumbled from beneath his jacket.

It took all of Allura’s willpower not to smack him for that. She closed her eyes and took a breath, calming herself. “Keith, everyone is more than allowed to show weakness because of this. We’re all vulnerable right now, in every sense of the word.” Keith flinched at the dual meaning of that statement, but Allura kept talking. “The best thing right now is for all of us to be there for each other.”

“You don’t understand, Allura!” Keith’s voice was harsh, but cracked from his pain. He didn’t look at her. “He told me he wanted me to take over! He wants me to lead Voltron! I can’t do this without him! I’ve already lost him once! I’m not going to lose him again! I…” His anger dissipated like a flame smothered in water. “I can’t.”

This time Allura didn’t hesitate. She pulled Keith into a tight hug, and his own arms came around her, holding her like she’s the only thing keeping him grounded. His sobs were loud and desperate, like a small child in pain. He sounded so lost, so _broken,_ and it ripped Allura’s heart in two. She closed her eyes, shedding tears of her own, the trembling Red Paladin tucking his face into her shoulder.


	2. Burden

The bridge had never been so quiet. After Allura had left to go find Keith, Coran decided to summon Kolivan and Slav to the bridge to discuss their next move. Although, without Keith and Allura present, there wasn’t much discussing happening.

Lance stood beside Coran, his hands on the control panel, looking at a map projected onto the screen. “The Blade of Marmora has outposts here, here, and here in the surrounding systems.” He pointed to each location as he said them. “Kolivan, if you can get us access to them―”

The swoosh of the doors opening cut the conversation off instantly. Every head in the room turned to see Allura and Keith walking in. Even from a distance, it was obvious they’d both been crying. The whites of Keith’s eyes had turned pink, and Allura still had some light tearstains on her cheeks. When Keith spoke, his voice was ragged, like his throat was as dry as the desert he’d lived in.

“Alright, we’re here.” Keith didn’t make eye contact with anyone, just fixed his eyes on the map. “What’s the plan?”

A few seconds of silence, then Pidge spoke up. “We were thinking about contacting the other Marmora outposts. The rebels know more about Zarkon’s empire than any of us. They can help us rebuild the galaxy.”

“As brilliant an idea as that sounds,” Allura said before Keith could snap at them (he looked like he was about to), “we should not be forming plans this soon. Many discoveries were made during this battle, and there is too much uncertainty regarding the fate of Zarkon.”

“The fate of Zarkon?” Hunk asked. “But I thought Zarkon was dead?”

“We don’t know that for a fact,” Keith said, arms crossed. He’d put his jacket back on before reaching the bridge, but his hair still stuck up in odd places from how tightly he’d had it pulled over his head. “We never did see a body.”

“Keith’s right,” Pidge said, pushing her glasses further up her nose. “Every good conspiracy theorist knows that if there’s no evidence of a body, presume the victim is alive.”

“That’s why our first priority will be to find Shiro.” Keith spoke with an air of authority that reminded them all of the absent Black Paladin.

“Who made you the leader?” Lance sassed, crossing his arms and arching an eyebrow.

“Shiro,” Keith answered simply.

Lance hesitated, his face falling and arms falling limp at his side. “Oh.” His voice had never sounded so small.

“I hate to be the harbinger of bad news,” said Slav, “but in this reality, none of us have any way of knowing where Shiro could have possibly gone were he not dead.”

“He’s not dead!” Keith shouted, his voice nearly a growl.

“Whoa, Keith.” Hunk carefully took a step forward and rested his hand on Keith’s shoulder. “I know you’re hurt over Shiro, but don’t attack Slav. Or any of us for that matter.”

“You must learn to control your Galra rage,” Kolivan said. “Galras are easily susceptible to strong negative emotions, such as anger and sadness. Let them consume you, and you will lose yourself.”

“That actually explains a lot about Keith,” Lance said.

Keith ignored the Blue Paladin’s jab. He bristled, this time literally _growling_ at Kolivan, his lip curled up into a snarl. His hand closed around the hilt of the blade behind his back. “Shiro left _me_ in charge of this team, and I fully intend to do everything in my power to find him. Anyone objects, there’s a hallway of pods in the belly of the ship with a convenient ability to shoot people into space.”

<><><><>

Hunk was never good at awkward situations. He was quite happy when everyone left the bridge. Pidge had disappeared to mess with something on the Green Lion; Allura had gone to the Black Lion’s bay to try and connect with her to see if she knew anything about what happened to Shiro; Coran and Kolivan monitored the defenses should the Galra attack; Slav had disappeared into his room to mess with his pillows or some other weird thing like that; Lance went down to the upside-down pool; and Keith had gone who-knows-where.

Hunk had decided to busy himself the only way he knew how: in the kitchens. Whenever he was stressed, Hunk liked to focus on food. Sometimes it seemed like that was all he thought about, but in truth, it was his defense mechanism. That’s why, before the big battle with Zarkon, Hunk had decided to think about calzones instead of the enemy, and when they first discovered the Blade of Marmora outpost cloaked in a space pocket, he compared it to food because it was something he understood. Food calmed him.

Today, he decided to calm his nerves by making cookies―and this time, maybe make them out of edible space food instead of scaultrite. Just thinking about the Weblum incident made Hunk shudder.

For almost a varga, Hunk was alone in the kitchen, making many trial-and-error batches of cookies. Until he was joined by one of the least likely people to join him.

“Keith?” Hunk said when he saw the reflection in the refrigerator (at least, it looked like a refrigerator).

Keith nodded, walking in and sitting on a counter by a cooling tray of cookies. “You look surprised.”

Hunk shrugged. “Little bit. You seem like one of the last people who would join me in the kitchens.”

Keith grabbed a cookie and bit into it. Judging by his somewhat surprised face, Hunk made a mental note that those were decent cookies. “Pidge thought this might be good for me. Said food usually helps with…” He paused. “What I’m going through.”

“Yeah…” Hunk checked the timer on his next batch. Just a few more ticks and they’d be done. “Sorry about that, by the way. It’s gotta be tough, losing Shiro like that. Especially since you don’t have any family to speak of and one side of it is an alien race bent on taking over the galaxy―”

“Hunk,” Keith interrupted. He didn’t sound angry, but his voice had an edge to it that made his thoughts perfectly clear.

Hunk grimaced. “Sorry, buddy. I ramble when I’m stressed.”

“Stick to making cookies. At least they don’t make puns about my bloodline.”

Hunk smirked as he took out the cookie tray. “I was right. Galra Keith is way funnier than regular Keith.”

“Galra Keith _is_ regular Keith, Hunk.” Hunk had his back to him, but he could tell the Red Paladin was rolling his eyes. “Nothing changed about me. I’m still…”

They way Keith cut himself off suggested that he wasn’t telling the full truth. Was there something about his Galra side that he knew about but didn’t tell the team? Allura had shunned him just for having Galra blood; what would she do if he had physical Galra features?

Hunk set the tray down and turned to look at Keith. “Hey man, you sure you’re alright?”

Keith had his arms crossed, his eyes on the floor somewhere to his right. “I already told Allura I’m not. Did she not pass on the message?”

Something broke inside Hunk’s chest. Hearing Keith openly admitting that he’s not alright was concerning. Back when he’d first suspected he was Galra, he’d been very secretive about it, answering “I’m fine,” to every question about how he was doing. But now he was crystal clear about his wellbeing, and that did not sit well with Hunk.

“You need a cookie,” Hunk said, shoving three warm cookies into Keith’s hand. “You need all the cookies.” He picked up every tray of cookies and set them by Keith, placing some cookies in the Red Paladin’s lap.

Keith cracked a smile―a small smile, but a smile nonetheless. “Thanks, Hunk.”

Keith eating the cookies was all the thanks Hunk needed.


End file.
